Introduction:
‘Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do’ -H. Jackson Brown Jr. When you look at all the successful people in this world. You would see that they weren’t born in to fame and money, they had to work hard and had to take a lot of hate from people in order to become successful. As Robert Fulghum once said, ‘sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt me.’ Nothing in life is easy and you can’t get to the top in this world without hate from people. The theme I am going to explore is ‘don’t let the odds defy you’. The 4 texts I have picked to link into my idea is the film the blind side directed by John Lee Hancock, Coach carter directed by Thomas Carter, Gridiron gang directed by Phil Joanou and the biography Michael Jordan: The life by Roland Lazenby. All of these texts have a common theme as people within these texts at one point had to face adversity and they all had to go through challenges to get to where they are today. After all the way to succeed in life can only be achieved with hard work and determination.
Ideas:
The film ‘The blind side’ directed by John Lee Hancock based on a real-life story depicts the struggles of a recently orphaned homeless boy trying to make it out of the ‘hood’. Michael Oher is a very big African American boy who is mentally slow and can’t fight for himself, His father successfully got him a scholarship at a private school but when he passes away Michael is clueless and has no other family that will let him live with them. He is homeless until he is taken in by a beautiful rich white family whose children attend the same school as Michael. He starts to build an unbreakable bond with the family and truly becomes one of them when they become his legal guardians. Michael has the build for a football player but has never played before, Michael is too kind to play football, so he is not very good at it as he has a fear of hurting the opposition. After reviewing his test results, they discover that the only part he succeeded in was protective instincts. This meant after being told to protect his team mates Michael becomes very successful very quickly and gets lots of different college offers but again faces a problem, he has to get a 2.5 GPA and has a current GPA of under one. Michael again has to face adversity to become successful, after months upon months of tutoring and practice Michael successfully reached his goal and yet again defied the odds. The final moments of the film Michael starting at college and finally getting drafted in the NFL draft. This clearly shows the theme of don’t let the odds defy you as Michael has come from nowhere with everyone doubting him and has become one of the best young footballers of the generations.
As Timo Cruz says in the film ‘coach carter’ ‘Our deepest fears are not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other People won’t feel insecure around you’. The point of this quote is to say that you should not hide your talents to be normal. Do what you want to do. The film ‘coach carter’ directed by Thomas Carter based on a true story displays the story of a wealthy African American man, who was very successful in sports. He goes back to his old high school in Richmond and witnessed the horror within their basketball team, none of the kids were in any good shape for sports, they hadn’t had a successful season since he had left. He then gets offered a job to become their coach but also a mentor to them and after a lot of thought accepts. These kids were doing drugs on the side and getting held at gun point when walking home and coach carter wants to change all of this. After training them every day in the offseason the team starts to get some wins and not long after these kids’ lives were turning around. They were becoming respectable young men. As they progressed through the season they started to have some hope in becoming successful out of school and they were learning every day off Coach carter and his ways. When they lose the state championship they are gutted but once back in the changing room Coach Carter opens their eyes to what they have achieved and the whole of Richmond now appreciated them. The final moment of the film we see that 6 boys from the team went on to become the first in their family to go to college. This clearly shows the theme of ‘don’t let the odds defy you’ as these students came from nowhere to become successful.
The film ‘Gridiron gang’ based on a true story directed by Phil Joanou depicts the struggles of young juvenile delinquents trying to become successful so they can build a life outside of the prison walls. Sean Porter is a prison counselor who has the responsibility of helping these troubled kids. His way he decides to do this is enter a team into the local football league. He picks a handful of kids who have the physical attributes to be football players but also need something to keep them distracted. The other teams do not agree with the decision to enter this team in the league and a quite frankly scared. These kids are very excited for the opportunity and Sean Porter uses it as a way to teach these kids some vital life skills that they might have missed out on as a kid. After a short couple of weeks of training they are ready for their first game but are unsuccessful. They all blame it on their peers and are enraged at each other. After training again and again throughout the season the team starts to find a tight bond and develop into a good team and go on to make the final. But the game before that one of the players gets shot as he look like he has joined a rival gang, this diminishes the hopes of the remaining players as the other team does not want to play but Sean organises the game. When they win the game, you can clearly see that they had come a long way and developed a lot of key life skills from their coach and each other. The end of the film shows how the life’s off the players end up and the majority of them go on to do very well for themselves. This shows the theme of ‘don’t let the odds defy you’ as these kids were in jail and had all, but no hope left in life but by the help of their coach and each other they developed key life skills to go on in life and become successful.
The biography ‘Michael Jordan: The life’ by Roland Lazenby shows the life of Michael Jordan and the struggles he had to face to make it to the top. Michael Jordan is known as the greatest basketball player ever, but he wasn’t born as good as you would expect. He faced many struggles to get to the top of the game. The first being his childhood, Michael started off in New York before moving to North Carolina. Jordan’s biggest inspiration was his father James R. Jordan, Sr. He taught him everything he knew, he never was a spoilt little kid living in a small damp house, Michaels parents having to work hard every day just, so the kids could go to school. Although his upbringing was a small setback as he never had a fancy place to practice or had a famous father who would get him noticed, his biggest setback throughout his entire career was his height. When a sophomore at high school he had the skill and the shot to make the top team, but they denied him purely because he was too small in their opinion and he would be no good to them. This is the clearest part throughout the whole text that the theme ‘don’t let the odds defy you’ comes through as Jordan did not stop playing because of his height, he practiced harder, got stronger so that he had to be picked and the very next year he made the team and became the best player to ever play for that school. Michael Jordan is the best basketball player of all time, but he just compliments the theory of practice makes perfect and the theme of ‘don’t let the odds defy you, as he did that exactly and it worked out very good for him.
There is a clear connection between both the films and biography and that is that just because you come from a low economic background does not mean you have to follow your peers into gangs or ignore your dreams and aspirations. You can do what you want to do. The clearest of connections is between the three films as these all paint a very clear picture of what defying the odds looks like. Gridiron gang and the blind side are both about football and the importance of teamwork as Michael Oher realizes that he is only good when having the purpose to protect his team and in the film Gridiron gang the whole team realizes the importance of working as a team to win. The same is said with Coach carter, these kids are not the brightest and they don’t have the vital life skills you need but their coaches all help them to become successful young men. Even though the biography on Michael Jordan does not have as many connections as the three films do there are still clear connections. The fact that in every text they started from know where and they all had people there to tell them they weren’t going to make it but in the end they all went on to become successful either individually or as a team.
Structure:
The most important part of the Film ‘The blind side’ is both the rising action and the falling action. This is when Michael is taken in by The Tuohy family after homelessness and the loss of family. He moves from a low economical area where he had lost hope in doing anything with his life into a beautiful big house. The falling action is when Michael decides that he will attend ole miss. The importance of the rising action is that now Michael has a steady home where he won’t be on the move all the time and has a family that is always going to be there for him. He now can focus on what is important to him and in this case, it is both his studies and football. The importance of the falling action is significant as this completes his move to the top. He has truly defied the odds and gone on to become very successful. But it’s not just important because he has made it to college but also, he had set a goal for himself and that was to get a 2.5 GPA, and, in this scene, we can see the happiness on Michaels face and the self-satisfaction as he has achieved his goal. With both the rising and falling action we can see how far he has come since moving in with the Tuohy’s, he had completed his rise to fame all with the help of his new family and the work his dad did to get him into that high school. He didn’t take opportunities for granted and worked hard to get to the top.
In the film ‘Coach Carter’ the most important scene is the falling action and the resolution.
The falling action is when they win the game to get into the state championship and the whole town rally’s together to support the team. The resolution is when they lose the final, but Coach Carter gives them a speech showing how proud he is in them and the progression they had made since he first met them. The importance of the falling action is the realisation that they were not just useless drug addicted basketball players but now successful young men. The progression they had made from when they first started really showed in this scene as previously there was no one in Richmond that would want to see them play but just a little bit of success coming from these young men brought the town and school together. This ties in perfectly with the resolution as although the team lost they were winners in the eyes of the whole community as they had transferred remarkably from boys to men. They had changed the name of Richmond basketball all with the help of Coach Carter. This is important because it shows that such a little thing can lead to such success for not only a team but a community. They had defied the odds and became one of the best high school basketball teams in the state.
The importance of the turning point and the resolution in the film Gridiron gang is very significant. The turning point in the film is when the team takes to the field for the first time against the best team in the state. The resolution in the film is when they win the state championship as a team. The importance of the turning point is that we now can see that these delinquents had finally taken a big step towards the better side of life. They had kept going not given up when the going got hard. They could have walked away at any time during the lead up to the game, but they didn’t. This shows that they are all determined to change their lives for the better. The resolution is very important because it shows them succeeding in life when so much had gone wrong. They had won something, and it could now help them to keep the life skills they learned of persistence and lots of others. They had not only won a game of football they had won what they had all been wanting for so very long. They had won freedom but not just any freedom, the freedom to become successful and not follow their peers into the dark side. With both the turning point and resolution we can clearly see that these young men had defied the odds of everyone and one something very important to them. They now have another lease on life.
The most important part structurally of the Michael Jordan’s biography is the different points of views shown throughout the text. Instead of Michael just talking about himself there are many other people involved in this biography. The likes of his ex-coaches and family members helps to get across how hard he worked to get to the top. His father said “Michael would get home from school, head on down to the court and shoot that damn basketball for hours” this really just helped to show how determined Michael was to make it big in his beloved sport. They even got some insight from his minor league baseball coach, who openly admitted that as soon as Jordan entered his team after his first stint in the NBA he knew straight away that is was a matter of months before he left back to basketball. The use of the different point of views helps to show how he defied the odds as we can see from so many other people that he had to face adversity to get where he is today.
The connection between all four texts structure are all similar except for the biography. The three movies all have very important scenes that help to transition you through the film. The use of the rising and falling actions can help to show you how much the character has progressed, this was the case within all three films. The resolution of a film helps you to see that they had achieved their goals even if they didn’t know that they had any and again this was the case in all three films. All the scenes in the films linked together well as they all had the same underlying theme of ‘don’t let the odds defy you’. The biography of Michael Jordan may not have as many connections but there are certainly a few. The link between all the films and the biography is that they all had different point of views which ensured that the director/author could get across the point. The use of the different point of views in all text allows us to see that everyone was thinking the same thing either about the individual or the team.
Audience and purpose:
John Lee Hancock’s main purpose in the film ‘the blind side’ is the fact that just because you are homeless at one point in your life and have no on left does not mean you should shut yourself off from people. You can make new friends and potentially even family by opening yourself up to people. Another key purpose coming out of the film is don’t give up, when the going gets hard keep going. Michael had lost almost everything but was accepted into a beautiful home and the family inside would soon become his own. He kept going with football even when it was hard he persisted at what he wanted so in reality he would get there in the end. It could be the same for his school work, before he met the Tuohy’s he was not very smart at all and had a very low GPA but with the help of others he ended up getting to where he wanted to be eventually. The target audience for this would be to make people aware that just because you don’t start at the top doesn’t mean you can’t get there. Michael was at an all-time low before he climbed his way up the ladder and ended up playing NFL football. To compliment the main purposes my theme of ‘don’t let the odds defy you’ fits in perfectly as Michael defied the odds to get where he is in the modern day.
The film ‘Coach Carter’ has many underlying purposes within but the main purpose is making people aware that what’s in the past, stays in the past and the future can always be different. In this case the team had finished dead last for numerous years in a row and everyone’s expectation for that season was exactly the same, but that was not the case they made a climb from last to second all in one season proving it can be done. Another point Thomas Carter was trying to get across was that don’t let your pass determine your future. All of those boys on that basketball team were looked down upon, many associated with gangs and doing drugs, but all changed when Coach Carter came along. They transferred from their past lives to become respectable young men. They were missing vital life skills and that’s what Thomas Carter tried to show us, but once they were taught these life skills they became successful. This just shows the importance of having someone in your life to look up to and learn off. The target audience for a film like this would be to show people that just because you go to a low economical school doesn’t mean you can’t be better than the wealthier schools. Richmond beat so many wealthy schools which had fancy uniforms and kids on scholarships throughout the season, this just proves that teamwork is the most important aspect of a team. Coach carter had developed these boys to have pride in their uniform and to not fear the better teams but to pull together as a unit and defy the odds.
Phil Joanou’s main purpose of the film ‘gridiron gang’ is to show that just because you have made a mistake in your life does not mean you have to suffer the consequences throughout your whole life. These young men were all bought up following the actions of those gone before and it was almost inevitable that one day they were going to end up in prison. When they get out they go back to doing the same things but with the help of Sean Porter they successfully get out of that trend. Joanou shows how easy it is to find life out of prison, by using a football team to do it. Many of the delinquents would have never played football together nut it didn’t matter as Sean taught them how to play. Actually, learning how to play football was not the main intention of Sean, the main purpose was to teach the young men how to work together and how to interact with people outside of their gang. The target audience would be to anyone that has been knocked down in life and is finding it hard to get up, it would be to anyone that thought there was no chance left for them, after all these delinquents never let the odds defy them.
The main purpose the author Roland Lazenby is trying to get across in the biography ‘Michael Jordan: the life” is size does not matter. Michael Jordan is one of if not the greatest basketball player of time but as a kid he was not big. He got denied on to a team because he was too small. This just proves that size doesn’t matter, when he did not get picked it did not dishearten him rather it motivated him to get better, so they had to pick him and that’s exactly what they did. Another purpose the author is trying to get through Is don’t give up. Even though Michael didn’t make a team he kept going, he never even thought of giving up because he knew he could get on that team and in the end, he did which shows that practice makes perfect. The audience for a book like this is people that need to know that you can’t become good at something with no practice. Jordan is the greatest of all time, but he didn’t start like that he had to work to get where he is today. The theme that compliments this purpose is don’t let the odds defy you as Michael got told no so many times but persisted and eventually got there.
The connection between all of these texts is don’t give up. In all of these texts the teams or individual hit a hard spot but kept going because they knew that if they persisted they would get there eventually. In coach carter and Gridiron gang the connection was don’t let your past determine your future as both teams/individuals had had bad pasts but had turned it around to end up on the right side. The connection between Michael Jordan and Coach Carter is also very similar as they both had been told they were not good enough especially the Richmond team, but both persisted at it and practiced until it became perfect. The connection between all four texts for audience is supposed to make people aware that just because you were not successful in the past does not mean you can’t be successful in the future. The big connection between all of them is again that they all defies the odds. They all had to face adversity to get to where they all wanted to be.
Language features/film techniques:
There were numerous amounts of film techniques in the film ‘The blind side’, I picked those that stood out. This was a flashback when Michael went back to his old neighborhood to see his mum but when there he had flashbacks of his him as a child being taken away from her and never seeing her again. Another film technique that stood out was a mid-shot of Michael standing with the Tuohy family as they were getting their annual Christmas photo taken. This was important because it showed that Michael was becoming a part of their family and they were proud to say that. Another important shot is a close up on Michael as he picked what college he was going to. This was important as it showed the self-satisfaction that he had got to where he wanted to be, he had achieved his goal. There were lots of other film techniques that helped show Michaels move from the bottom to the top but those were the main ones that stood out. The film techniques helped to show Michael defying the odds as they were used to show how the progression of his movement through the film by close up’s and various other shots.
In the film ‘Coach Carter’ the main film techniques that stood out were close up’s, cuts and music/sound. The main close up’s that stood out to me occurred when the team was playing in a game. Every time there was a stoppage in play Thomas Carter would use a close up to show the emotion on many players faces, this helped you to analyse how they were feeling and see how much effort they were putting in to this game. By using the close up’s, it was easier to understand how much the players cared about the team and how much they wanted to win. The next was cuts. The use of the cut in this film helped to transition the film through different scenes. The main cuts that stood out to me were between the games, by doing this you could compare the improvements of the players and the teamwork as you got to see them in different games. The last technique being music/sound. This technique is used a lot throughout the film, it helps to build suspense when the team is just losing in a game but wins in the last minute. They use a lot of upbeat music to set the mood this ensures everyone knows that something good is going to happen. The use of all these techniques particularly the close up’s helps to show that the team are defying the odds as they are putting in the effort to win and are not settling for losing.
The film ‘Gridiron gang’ entails a lot of different film techniques within. The ones that stood out to me were quick cuts, close up’s and subtitles. The technique quick cut is used very good in the football scenes, the use of is it allows us to see many different players during the game rather than one. This means we can see the improvement between all of them and their newly found teamwork in action. The next film technique that stood out was close up’s. There were a lot of close ups within the film but the ones that stood out were again in the football scenes. This was because it allowed us to see the emotion on the faces of the players and helped us to see the determination they had to win and purely how happy they were to be out on the field and given a second opportunity. The final technique used was subtitles. These were used at the end of the film and were used very well, they were used to inform us of what the characters in the film achieved in real life and this was the moment that clearly stood out as defying the odds.
There were a number of different language features within the biography ‘Michael Jordan: the life’. The most important ones were irony, simile and metaphor. The irony that really stood out to me was when Michael’s high school basketball coach didn’t pick him on the team. The irony in this is clear as Michael went on to become one of the greatest of all time, but his high school coach still didn’t pick him to be on his team. The simile that really stood out to me was when his father said “He had more bounce than a trampoline” this is meaning for how small he was he could still slam dunk because he could jump so high in the air. The last language feature that stood out is a metaphor from Michael’s fans and that is “Michael’s a beast”. This perfectly describes him as he was the best at everything he did on a basketball court and cause total domination over his opposition. The use of all of these language features perfectly show Michael defying the odds especially the simile as it shows height means nothing.
The connection between all the film techniques between the three films is very clear as all of the techniques are often used. The ones that stood out to me were subtitles, although I only listed it as one important technique it was used in all films. This helped to show us how truly all of these teams and individuals had defied the odds. In all of the subtitles it showed success within each team and how hard work really can pay off. Although the Michael Jordan biography did not show many clear links to the films film techniques, there were still connections as all of the films contained metaphors, irony and similes and example of this is in Gridiron Gang when Sean Porter says the metaphor “your all like animals “this is implying they all need to be angry and catch their prey being the other team. The use of both language features and film techniques really does help show the theme of defying the odds as it shows a progression through both the films and biography and also how much emotion you can see on people’s faces, how much they want it.